Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and the present disclosure, and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
It is known for a person, known as a principal, to grant a limited power of attorney to a third party, known as an agent or attorney-in-fact (hereinafter, collectively “attorney-in-fact”), authorizing or appointing the attorney-in-fact to undertake certain actions on behalf of the principal. Requirements for granting a power of attorney may vary across nations and jurisdictions, including from state to state. Subject matter disclosed herein provides methods and systems for the grant of a limited power of attorney through an electronic system.
Traditionally, execution of legal instruments, such as a power of attorney, may require several actions designed to attest to the authenticity of the execution of the document. Such actions may include verifying that the party authorizing the instrument is the person that is entitled to make such an authorization, as well as the witnessing of the execution, and subsequent signing of the instrument by the witnessing parties. While this sort of verification is achieved in a relatively straightforward manner when the execution of the instrument is being done physically, in person, it becomes significantly more difficult when the executions are done remotely, electronically, and through distributed systems.
If the execution of a legal instrument is done remotely one must be able to verify 1) that the authorizing party is who they are claiming to be, 2) that the one or more witnessing parties are who they claim to be, and 3) that the witnessing parties were physically present when the principal's execution of the instrument occurred.
A technical problem with executing a legal instrument, especially one that requires corroboration of the instrument's execution by the principal via witnessing of the verification, is the authentication of the parties to the instrument's execution, and the verification that the witnessing parties were physically present as witnesses during the principal's execution of the instrument. This is particularly true for electronic execution when the execution action is performed remotely and/or via a distributed system. In such instances of remote execution, it is common to have minimal levels of authentication, such as having the principal use a username and password to enter into a web-portal through which they may then execute the document. Such a single level of authentication is relatively easy to defeat. The implementation of multiple levels of authentication may be beneficial to prevent unauthorized parties from executing such a legal instrument in the place of the authorized principal.
Existing technology and practices are deficient in providing witness verification through electronic mechanisms. Existing technology principally relies upon two-factor verification techniques, such as, possession of a device, coupled with knowledge of a device PIN or password. Some further verification techniques may additionally determine device location. Some further verification techniques may rely upon biometrics.